🎬 Rejected... again

👋 Good morning! New Tom Cruise lore just dropped. In a New York Times profile on Shawn Levy, the director shared this story from the London set of 'Star Wars: Starfighter': Cruise stopped by for a visit, arriving via helicopter as the crew blasted the 'Mission: Impossible' theme. Levy jokingly suggested Cruise hop on a camera and shoot one of the lightsaber duels. Cruise, apparently not understanding jokes, waded into a muddy pond and started filming, ruining his very nice shoes in the process. Levy says the footage is in the movie.

Welcome back to The Dailies. You made it to Friday. Someone give you a trophy. We have streaming numbers, industry news, and new releases. Grab your coffee. 👇

How last week’s releases are stacking up…

Top-streamed chart (U.S.) Jan. 2 to Jan. 8. Data provided by Luminate.

WBD's board turned down the $108.4B hostile takeover bid Wednesday, urging shareholders to stick with Netflix's $83B deal for the streaming and studio assets instead. Paramount is offering $30 per share in cash, backed by a personal guarantee from billionaire Larry Ellison, but the board says the debt-heavy structure is too risky. Despite the eighth rejection, WBD board chair Samuel Di Piazza Jr. said the company remains "very open" to a Paramount deal with a higher price and less debt.

Paramount fired back yesterday, accusing WBD of moving the goalposts and pointing to Netflix's falling stock price as a red flag. The company isn't backing down, but it's also not raising its bid.

At least one major WBD shareholder, Pentwater Capital, is publicly calling the board's rejection "wrong." The DOJ is doing its routine review of Paramount's bid, and shareholders have until January 21 to decide whether to accept it.

Cinema United, the industry's largest trade group, sent a letter to Congress this week warning that a Netflix win would put a streaming-first company in control of a major studio, while a Paramount win would consolidate roughly 40% of the domestic box office under one roof. The group called the threat to theaters "grave and possibly even existential."

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📺 I want my MTV back. Paramount Skydance is on the hunt for a strategic partner to help revive the cable network, which has lost steam over the past two decades and now averages fewer than 200,000 primetime viewers. The company has talked to major music industry figures about acquiring a stake, hoping access to music rights and artist connections could return MTV to its roots. The network launched as a music video channel in 1981 before becoming a reality TV fixture with 'The Real World' and 'Jersey Shore.' David Ellison has made revitalizing brands like MTV and CBS News a priority, and if this works, it could become a template for other Paramount properties.

📱 Disney+ wants in on the TikTok action. The streaming giant announced at CES that it's rolling out a vertical video feed later this year in a play for a bigger slice of the mobile video business. The feed is designed to turn the app into a daily destination rather than just a place for two-hour movie nights. It’ll serve up a mix of original short-form clips, repurposed social content, edited scenes from existing titles, and potentially AI-generated content from Disney's recently announced OpenAI deal. The move follows Disney's "Verts" launch on ESPN last August and speaks to a larger reality: streaming services aren't just competing with each other anymore. They're fighting for attention against the infinite scroll.

📽️ IMAX just had its best year ever. The premium format giant hit a record $1.28B in global box office for 2025, up 40% from last year and 13% above its pre-pandemic high in 2019. A big part of that success came from going global: local-language releases surged 65% to $405M worldwide, with Chinese animated epic 'Ne Zha 2' ($167M) and Japanese anime 'Demon Slayer: Infinity Castle' ($96M) landing in the company's top five films. IMAX now captures 3.8% of the global box office from just 1,800 locations, a sign that even as overall theatrical attendance lags, audiences are increasingly willing to pay up for premium experiences.

The nominations for the 32nd annual Actor Awards (formerly the SAG Awards) are out, and Paul Thomas Anderson's 'One Battle After Another' set a new record with seven nods. The film scored nominations in every category, including acting nods for Leonardo DiCaprio, Chase Infiniti, Benicio del Toro, Sean Penn, and Teyana Taylor. Some other highlights:

As for the snubs: International performances got completely frozen out. Wagner Moura ('The Secret Agent') and the entire 'Sentimental Value' cast were passed over despite strong awards season buzz. This isn't new for SAG-AFTRA, whose domestic-heavy voting body has a history of overlooking foreign-language work that later scores with the more internationally diverse Academy. Cynthia Erivo also missed for 'Wicked: For Good,' her second major snub after Critics Choice.

Paul Thomas Anderson ('One Battle After Another'), Ryan Coogler ('Sinners'), Guillermo del Toro ('Frankenstein'), Josh Safdie ('Marty Supreme') and Chloé Zhao ('Hamnet') rounded out the field for Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Theatrical Feature Film. It's a reliable Oscar bellwether: 20 of the last 23 DGA winners have gone on to win the Academy Award for director. See the full list of noms here.

Looking ahead… The DGA Awards ceremony takes place February 7, and the Actor Awards stream live on Netflix on March 1.

🎥 THEATRICAL

📺 STREAMING

🏆 AWARDS SEASON